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FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 2×20- “Rupture”

The Flash
(2×19) –
“Rupture”
Written by: Kai Yu Wu & Lauren
Certo   
Directed by: Armen V. Kevorkian
Welcome to
another episode of “Flash-less” this week we open on a high-speed chase.  But what’s this? The Flash in in pursuit?
Just Kidding! Barry and Cisco have cooked up a complicated system of holographic
projection to mimic the presence of the Flash. 
Because, hey “Cold Open Teases Gonna Tease.”
The gang is
pretty proud of themselves but Wells does the Lord’s Work of bringing them back
to reality.  They’re wasting time playing
games when they all know they need Barry actually back in The Game if they want
to save Caitlin and to do that they have to blow up Central City the Particle Accelerator again. (Sorry,
but it is an easy mistake to make all things considered.)
Barry’s not
down so he takes a trip into the mountains (Who’s car is that?) and visits
Henry and we all learn some things. 
Namely, Barry is really bad at keeping his father in the loop.  He didn’t know that Barry lost his powers.
Didn’t know Zoom took Caitlin.  Hell he
didn’t even know Jay’s last name!  (The
same as his own mother’s maiden name.) 
Henry decides that sitting up in a cabin in the woods is great for
fishing, but not for helping his son get over his abandonment issues so he
returns with Barry.
They go to
STAR Labs where Wells is showing off his “Give Barry his Powers Back” version
of the Particle Accelerator.  Cisco makes
a Fringe joke that goes over Jesse’s head (Don’t worry Jesse, no one on this
Earth watch that show, either) but before anyone can ask the obvious question: “How
will this not blow a Central City shaped hole in the Earth?” Cisco has a vision
of Dante looking very serial killer causing him to bail out.
Over at the
Police Station, Joe and Wally are having a father-son talk that can easily be
summed up like this.  Wally isn’t sure
how he can bring his passion for speed together with his desire to help
people.  Joe gives him what advice he
can; keep studying engineering.  Which is
fine advice, if Wally gets an engineering job he could help people with charity
work, or design vehicle upgrades for police cars, or a particle accelerator of
his own that gives him speed powers and a fancy yellow and red outfit (Or
silver and red, I’m not picky!)
Their nice
moment is broken up by the arrival of Zoom with his One True Loving-Hostage,
Caitlin.  Zoom’s taking over this town,
see! He don’t want no lawmen on his turf!
Joe regroups
with the Team at STAR Labs and they try to figure out what to do now.  Well, I hate to say it gang since I’m very
pro not blowing up the Earth simply because some PhDs have figured out how but
at the same time I’m also very anti-dimension-hopping-Supervillains ruling the
Earth.  Well, Zoom at least can we
compromise? Because I’ll happily live under Red-K Supergirl… 
Under her
rule! I meant under her rule! That’s totally what I meant!
Anyway, how’s
this for a compromise? It’s probably time to get on board the Wells train.
Meanwhile,
at the Police Station. Zoom is in full monologue mode.  The current monologue subject; Oh Caitlin,
you’ll grow to love me as soon as you turn to evil but in the mean time I will
crush Central City under the iron boot of oppression! 
(Seriously, have you seen
evil Melissa Benoist? Hell, have you seen her arms?)  
(Take me to the gun show oh evil Madam Ruler!)   
Zoom leaves the station, which gives Caitlin
the opportunity to start improvising her way out of there.  Good thing she was left in an abandoned
police station.
At a dive
bar across town, it’s a little closer to an actually dive bar but still pretty
TV.  Cisco meets up with his big brother,
and it turns out Dante (understandably) holds a bit of a grudge.  Don’t look at me like that!  Speaking as an older brother, if my sister
got me kidnapped by Captain Cold and my hands almost frozen off, I’d be a
little stand-offish at the next family Bar-B-Que too.  They have some awkward time together before
Cisco sees Zoom is back in town and decides to get back to STAR Labs to lend a
hand.
Over at STAR
Labs, Joe locks Jesse and Wally in the time vault (Wow Joe, you’re going to
lock two attractive young people together in a room for an indeterminate amount
of time? Get used to the term “Grandpa!”) and heads down to Wells’ lab for a
father pow-wow.  This time a three-way
father pow-wow; Joe, Wells and Henry all duking it out with their best “I have
to do what’s best for my kids” arguments until Barry shows up and explains that
he’s not ready to make his decision yet.
At the bar,
Cisco has settled Dante’s tab and the two head to his van but are caught by…
well the guy looks like he’s either a meta-human or Undertaker’s tag-team
partner but since he seems to have an energy blasting scythe… Actually that
doesn’t settle things.
It seems he
thinks Cisco has killed his brother… He removes his mask to reveal Dante and
that does put him firmly in the meta-human camp.  The Ramon brothers escape with some creative
use of the van and head back to STAR Labs.
Wells is
able to give them a scouting report and as a special touch uses it in his “Hey,
wanna quit wasting time and get your powers back” argument which cause Barry to
leave to brood.
Down in the
basement, Barry’s teetering and Iris comes down to “help.”  I put help in quotations here because it’s
questionable.  I know things work
differently on CW-Earth but here on Earth-Zero when someone has a big decision
that’s eating them alive it’s probably not the best time to present them with “Hey,
I want to have your babies!”  Barry’s response
appropriate to her bad timing with the time honored question of “Why are you
telling me this, now?” Translation: “Are you kidding me?”  Which throws some cold water on Iris and she
leaves.
At the Police
Station, Zoom psyches Rupture (Earth-2 Dante) up to hit the police at Jitters.  Rupture leaves and Zoom does as well after he
gets some taunting in on Caitlin. 
Caitlin digs into a nearby evidence box and finds a cell phone.  She uses it to warn the gang and they start
to come up with a plan.  But when Wells
says, they already have a plan (like a dog with a bone, this guy!) Barry puts
his foot done and basically says “The Flash is dead. Bury it.”
Barry and
Joe head off to Jitters to gear up while Cisco packs up his equipment.  Dante comes in and it turns out he’s found
Cisco’s “I went to Earth-2 and died” letters from earlier in the season and the
two have another argument before Cisco lets it out that he has to help because
he’s a meta-human too and he’s been worried Dante would reject because they
haven’t been close for too long.
At Jitters,
Rupture shows up to take on the cops and the Flash “shows up” to take him
on.  While Barry and Cisco’s hologram
distracts him, Joe gets a shot off with one of Cisco’s tech weapons and Rupture
is apprehended.
At the
Police Station, Zoom watches the news report on Rupture’s capture and after
figuring out Caitlin warned them over-reacts a little.  Of course, by “over-reacts” I means Zoom
snaps some necks and by “a little” I mean every Cop in Jitters that isn’t Singh
or Joe.  He then grabs the news camera
and outs Barry’s little holographic trickery and promises that the gloves are
off.
Cisco
returns to the Lab and finds Dante and the brother hug it out.  Because watching yourself and your brother
being murdered will put things in perspective like that.  Meanwhile, Jesse and Wally are… I’ll be
damned they aren’t giving Joe and Wells a grandkid, they’re trying to
Scooby-Doo their way out of the time vault.
Up in the
Hub, the team’s gathered together and it’s time to face facts.  Not only can they not stop Zoom without Barry
getting his powers back but most of the audience has no interest in continuing
to watch “Flash-Less.”  It’s time to blow
up the Accelerator before things get any worse.
However, it’s
not enough to just blow up the Accelerator. They have to get Barry struck by
lightning and since there’s no time-traveling Barry Allens to create the
lightning this time, they’ve modified Weather Wizard’s wand to do the trick.  It a scene not unlike Flashpoint, they
recreate the Lightning Strike and finally Barry… gets… disintegrated?
Huh.
Did not see
that coming.
Zooms
watches the lighting strike from Barry labs and arrives to see the
aftermath.  While he gloats one other
thing has happened.  The energy that was
released when Barry was “killed” traveled through STAR Labs and hit Jesse and
Wally. 
So, I guess
that was it.  That was the last episode
of the Flash on CW, first Deathstroke, then Deadshot and Harley Quinn, then Black Canary, now Barry Allen!  Zack Snyder strikes again right.  Well, it’s been great reviewing these for you
guys.  I don’t know what I’ll be doing in
the fall, maybe when Supergirl is renewed I’ll bully- I mean negotiate my way into reviewing
Supergirl but for now this is goodbye-
I’m sorry, I’m
really tempted to cut and paste some of last week’s review in here.  All said and done this is manufactured stunt-drama,
well-executed for sure but it changes nothing. 
We all know Barry’s not dead, we all know he’s coming back with his
powers but I’m willing to play along because the successes are in the details.
Cisco had a
nice subplot this week and I enjoy the Jesse and Wally subplot as well.  Also, we got John Wesley Shipp back so that’s
a good trade off.  I could’ve done
without the Barry/Iris stuff, but I’ve already said my piece about that.
As for the
ending, there was a lot to like as well but most importantly they managed to
surprise me and left me curious.  I’m
hoping that this might be the beginning of the more meta-physical aspects of
the Speed Force since I love that stuff.
I’m left
with more interest in the next episode than I had last week so that alone is an
improvement.
Three Four Things We
Learned This Week:
1)     
Barry doesn’t call his dad enough.
2)     
There must have only been one police station in
Central City.
3)     
The breach between the Earths is still open.
4)     
I am open to tyranny if the tyrant is hot
enough.
Three Questions:
1)     
What happened to Wally and Jesse?
2)     
What is Zoom’s next step?
3)     
Where is Barry?

Just another guy on the internet.